Here are the great pics. Keep in mind that my girls don't get a long very often...so these are great to have.
Home Sweet Home! by The Pioneer Woman
3 years ago
Sunday, October 14, 2007
Girls and posing 3
How it all started!!!
Here are the great pics. Keep in mind that my girls don't get a long very often...so these are great to have.
Here are the great pics. Keep in mind that my girls don't get a long very often...so these are great to have.
Girls and posing 2
Then came Bailey. The little "Miss Thing" in my house.
Definately wanting to follow in Melissa's footsteps, she has been trying to imitate her as much as she is allowed to at the age of 11.
Here are a couple of her cuter poses.
Definately wanting to follow in Melissa's footsteps, she has been trying to imitate her as much as she is allowed to at the age of 11.
Here are a couple of her cuter poses.
Girls and posing
First it was Melissa. The webcam became her best friend. She would sit here in front of the computer and just click off picture after picture. Am thinking that ANTM was partially to blame for this newest fad.
when the webcam broke - she took to using the regular camera.
Conceited??? maybe just a bit. LOL But she is a pretty young lady that's for sure.
when the webcam broke - she took to using the regular camera.
Conceited??? maybe just a bit. LOL But she is a pretty young lady that's for sure.
Shayne is growing up
Well, my kids just keep getting bigger and bigger. Amazing how that happens hey?
Shayne will be 14 in December. He has his first girlfriend - Breanna. Have not met her yet but have said hi to her on the phone. He said they are keeping it "a secret" from everyone at school so they won't get bugged.
He is also almost as tall as me...give him another 6 months and he will be...not that it will take much seeing as how I am only 5 ft 1. But with a mom this short and a dad that is only 5 ft 8...really...how much of a chance does he have???
Here is his newest picture that he had Melissa take.
Shayne will be 14 in December. He has his first girlfriend - Breanna. Have not met her yet but have said hi to her on the phone. He said they are keeping it "a secret" from everyone at school so they won't get bugged.
He is also almost as tall as me...give him another 6 months and he will be...not that it will take much seeing as how I am only 5 ft 1. But with a mom this short and a dad that is only 5 ft 8...really...how much of a chance does he have???
Here is his newest picture that he had Melissa take.
Hay crop in Alberta
While it looked to be a great year for hay...it actually has turned out to be a bad year.
The first cut grew really well - nice and high and green. Some farmers were lucky and got it cut and baled before it started to rain...but most of it got rained on.
The second cut, however, did not happen. If a farmer did get a second cut, it was very minimal...and it turns out they are keeping that.
Due to all this, I have heard rumor that some farmers have doubled the price of their rained on first cut bales - asking as much as $75 a round.
That is going to make this year another tough one. We have 3 hay guys that we buy from so we are hopeful that they will have enough for us.
The first cut grew really well - nice and high and green. Some farmers were lucky and got it cut and baled before it started to rain...but most of it got rained on.
The second cut, however, did not happen. If a farmer did get a second cut, it was very minimal...and it turns out they are keeping that.
Due to all this, I have heard rumor that some farmers have doubled the price of their rained on first cut bales - asking as much as $75 a round.
That is going to make this year another tough one. We have 3 hay guys that we buy from so we are hopeful that they will have enough for us.
The breeding fee confusion
I have been working on setting my breeding fee for Hyde and Gunner and am just confused as to how to set it up.
I know I can't go for the big buck right now even though their pedigrees are fantastic as they haven't reached the show ring yet. But I also don't want to get it too low.
I am thinking of setting it at $750/mare. This will be broken down into $150 for booking fee (non-refundable) - $100 for chute fee (will be paid to Dale) - $500 for actual breeding fee.
What is the consensus? Is that too much? Too little?
Now my next question is: how do I pick the mares that will be bred to them? With their pedigrees, I am thinking we may get more interest in them than what we have decided on for numbers actually being bred. Dale and I talked this over and decided on a maximum of 10 mares each.
HELP!! LOL
I know I can't go for the big buck right now even though their pedigrees are fantastic as they haven't reached the show ring yet. But I also don't want to get it too low.
I am thinking of setting it at $750/mare. This will be broken down into $150 for booking fee (non-refundable) - $100 for chute fee (will be paid to Dale) - $500 for actual breeding fee.
What is the consensus? Is that too much? Too little?
Now my next question is: how do I pick the mares that will be bred to them? With their pedigrees, I am thinking we may get more interest in them than what we have decided on for numbers actually being bred. Dale and I talked this over and decided on a maximum of 10 mares each.
HELP!! LOL
My "honey do" list got worked on
As every wife does, I always have a "honey do" list sitting here for Doyle to work on. He also has his own "to do" list of stuff that he would like to work on. So this week, he did a combination of them as some of the items were the same.
It was FENCING time.
He went and got the post pounder from his boss and spent 2 1/2 days pounding posts along 5 lines of fence. He also made a new line of fence which is great.
He has a little more work to do one the new line - which is where the white gates used to be. He moved that entire fence line back about 40 feet. Which will make this winter a lot easier to move hay as he can get the tractor and hay into the hayshed without TAKING DOWN THE FENCE. This new fence is really nice too - 2 plank when finished.
He also repaired a lot of old broken down fencing - took off the old wire - put in new posts and will re-string with wire over the next couple weeks. One of the fence lines he put new posts in will not be wired until spring so that the horses can eat off of the two pastures at the same time. We are really hoping that will last them until December.
Doyle also pounded a post in at the round pen for me - now to put boards up in those two sections and I will be able to use it again.
We also designed our foaling stall for Dolly. She is due at the end of March which up here in Canada can still be pretty cold. It is going to be 24 x 16...with insulated walls and we will put 3 plexi-glass windows in so she gets some light. Doyle is going to get his buddy out with the bobcat to dig out the old dirt in there and then pack in new claybased dirt and then we will put sand down.
We also re-designed our mare/foal pens for when we get to the breeding stage of our stallion ownership with Hyde, Gunner and Molson.
It was FENCING time.
He went and got the post pounder from his boss and spent 2 1/2 days pounding posts along 5 lines of fence. He also made a new line of fence which is great.
He has a little more work to do one the new line - which is where the white gates used to be. He moved that entire fence line back about 40 feet. Which will make this winter a lot easier to move hay as he can get the tractor and hay into the hayshed without TAKING DOWN THE FENCE. This new fence is really nice too - 2 plank when finished.
He also repaired a lot of old broken down fencing - took off the old wire - put in new posts and will re-string with wire over the next couple weeks. One of the fence lines he put new posts in will not be wired until spring so that the horses can eat off of the two pastures at the same time. We are really hoping that will last them until December.
Doyle also pounded a post in at the round pen for me - now to put boards up in those two sections and I will be able to use it again.
We also designed our foaling stall for Dolly. She is due at the end of March which up here in Canada can still be pretty cold. It is going to be 24 x 16...with insulated walls and we will put 3 plexi-glass windows in so she gets some light. Doyle is going to get his buddy out with the bobcat to dig out the old dirt in there and then pack in new claybased dirt and then we will put sand down.
We also re-designed our mare/foal pens for when we get to the breeding stage of our stallion ownership with Hyde, Gunner and Molson.
Fuzzy beasts
Winter must be just around the corner. The leaves are all gone...the green has disappeared from all but the really well protected grass. And THE HORSES LOOK LIKE FUZZY DICE!!!
Here are a couple shots of the fuzziest of them all:
Lucky - age 31.
Molson - age 1
Gidget - age 2
Here are a couple shots of the fuzziest of them all:
Lucky - age 31.
Molson - age 1
Gidget - age 2
Angel is home
On Oct 7, Melissa and I went over to Jay's to pick up Angel. We had been hoping that someone would be there to show us what they had done with her as part of the agreement behind the breeding lease was that they would ride her for us - we are in desparate need of another really good quiet riding horse.
No one was around that we could see so we just went out to the pasture to catch her. She was very easy to catch and load which was a nice change.
After we got her home, we turned her out with Lucky in the small pasture. She could meet and greet with everyone else over the fence - which turned out to not be a great thing as she was rearing, striking and kicking at everyone so we just turned them out together. Things settled down really easy once the others realized that they couldn't just chase her off - that she would stand her ground.
Melissa then realized that she wanted to ride her so spent the next 20 minutes trying to catch her again. But managed to do it without too much trouble.
Once she was caught, Melissa tacked her up to go for a ride...but then the trouble started. Angel was BAD. She kept trying to bolt, refused to turn, and was just down and out hard to handle.
Melissa then put her back in the arena and I went out to try to help her figure out the problems. We tried riding on a loose rein and just using leg aides to turn - but that seemed to make her bolt. So we tried just using direct reining techniques but she would rear. When she did that, Melissa would push her into a lope to make her work harder for being bad. We tried to work on big circles and serpentine curves to see if it was just tight circles that were the problem...but it didn't seem to be.
During the week, Melissa rode her a couple more times with no better success. She switched saddles to see if that was a problem. Switched bits and even went to the sidepull (bitless bridle) to no avail. The one thing I am proud of though is through this Melissa is not giving up...when Angel would misbehave before, Melissa would just get off and put her away.
I called Jay to get an update from him as to what was done with her. Randy, Jay's partner, called and said that they hadn't really done much with her this year due to her having the foal, but he would be willing to come over and help Melissa with her and if Melissa wanted, he would take her back for 2 weeks or so and get her going for us again. He said it sounded to him like she had reverted to where she was last year when they picked her up.
Will keep you updated.
Update for Oct on the boys
Well, I am a little mixed up on my chronological order in doing all these posts this time but here goes with my update on Hyde and Gunner from Oct 3:
Dale and Hyde were already in her massive round pen warming up with we arrived. So we walked over and through the cattle pen and up on to the seats and hunkered down to watch him work.
Right now she is working on getting more controlled, collected and immediate stop. She has been letting him stop with the cow so that she could get the stop/turn happening as the cow did it - working on confidence. Now she wants him to start coming to a complete stop before the cow does. When he does it - man he is explosive in his turn or his jump ahead to go straight with the cow. I am not sure I could stay on one of those turns. She also has started doing a figure eight pattern at the reverse. It is really neat to watch her and listen - she has gone back to talking to me and explaining everything in great detail as it is happening. I also noticed again that she is very quick to pat once they have done something correctly...but also as quick to discipline if they are continually doing it wrong.
When he was done, she did exactly what she said last time. Got off him - put me on and had me ride him out and open and close the gate - talking me through it all step by step. After we were through we did a bunch of sidepassing....which I was totally doing WRONG. NO wonder Skeena couldn't figure out what I was wanting her to do. LOL We spent probably 15 minutes on it. She said I do have the technique down but need to be more assertive with him. He had me figured out in about 3 minutes that I wasn't as demanding as Dale. LOL Go figure hey? She did say that my leg aides are great as well as my confidence in doing the normal stuff - also said I look very relaxed which was great. She told me to keep practicing at home and to try to strengthen my left leg as she could tell by how Hyde moved that it isn't as strong as my right. I think that has to do with my back issue because I did notice today that when I was using it - my back hurt on the right side. So will have to discuss that with my chiropractor.
We untacked him - and she had me do lots of it this time and put him on the hot walker.
Then it was Gunner's turn. He sure is one built little man. Dale also had me help tack him up - well...just put his splint boots on. I was holding them and she said "put them on"...and then had to tell me how because I have never used them. I had the basic idea down but not the exact placement.
Gunner is working great. She is working on his turning - front legs crossing over each other properly instead of just HOPPING around cause he thinks it is quicker. She also has started the reverse figure 8. He isn't as speedy as Hyde at anything yet but that is to be expected as he is 5 months behind on the cattle work. His main problem today was his stop. he just wanted to keep moving. So that was what they worked on. Go and stop. Go and stop. But is he ever more relaxed about everything. Never got into a dither even when being told HARD to stop NOW. Dale worked 2 cows with him. On the 2nd one he did great with 3 perfect stops. So she quit right then.
I didn't get up on him today as after riding Hyde my back was not happy. But next time - I hope - I will ride them both.
So all in all a great visit.
Dale and Hyde were already in her massive round pen warming up with we arrived. So we walked over and through the cattle pen and up on to the seats and hunkered down to watch him work.
Right now she is working on getting more controlled, collected and immediate stop. She has been letting him stop with the cow so that she could get the stop/turn happening as the cow did it - working on confidence. Now she wants him to start coming to a complete stop before the cow does. When he does it - man he is explosive in his turn or his jump ahead to go straight with the cow. I am not sure I could stay on one of those turns. She also has started doing a figure eight pattern at the reverse. It is really neat to watch her and listen - she has gone back to talking to me and explaining everything in great detail as it is happening. I also noticed again that she is very quick to pat once they have done something correctly...but also as quick to discipline if they are continually doing it wrong.
When he was done, she did exactly what she said last time. Got off him - put me on and had me ride him out and open and close the gate - talking me through it all step by step. After we were through we did a bunch of sidepassing....which I was totally doing WRONG. NO wonder Skeena couldn't figure out what I was wanting her to do. LOL We spent probably 15 minutes on it. She said I do have the technique down but need to be more assertive with him. He had me figured out in about 3 minutes that I wasn't as demanding as Dale. LOL Go figure hey? She did say that my leg aides are great as well as my confidence in doing the normal stuff - also said I look very relaxed which was great. She told me to keep practicing at home and to try to strengthen my left leg as she could tell by how Hyde moved that it isn't as strong as my right. I think that has to do with my back issue because I did notice today that when I was using it - my back hurt on the right side. So will have to discuss that with my chiropractor.
We untacked him - and she had me do lots of it this time and put him on the hot walker.
Then it was Gunner's turn. He sure is one built little man. Dale also had me help tack him up - well...just put his splint boots on. I was holding them and she said "put them on"...and then had to tell me how because I have never used them. I had the basic idea down but not the exact placement.
Gunner is working great. She is working on his turning - front legs crossing over each other properly instead of just HOPPING around cause he thinks it is quicker. She also has started the reverse figure 8. He isn't as speedy as Hyde at anything yet but that is to be expected as he is 5 months behind on the cattle work. His main problem today was his stop. he just wanted to keep moving. So that was what they worked on. Go and stop. Go and stop. But is he ever more relaxed about everything. Never got into a dither even when being told HARD to stop NOW. Dale worked 2 cows with him. On the 2nd one he did great with 3 perfect stops. So she quit right then.
I didn't get up on him today as after riding Hyde my back was not happy. But next time - I hope - I will ride them both.
So all in all a great visit.
Is it still a "new" job after a month???
It sure feels like it. The days seem to be either getting longer or shorter - depending on how much work there is and how well I have slept the night before.
We finally are set up in our office. We are all together - which is new. But we got new desks, computer monitors, keyboards and SUPPLIES!!! It sure is nice not to have to worry about things like that at this place.
We also got our "assignments". We will be starting to put in all the employees (DFL - Direct Field Labor) timesheets on a daily basis. There are currently just over 1800 men working for Bantrel at the Refinery. They are starting to "man up" (meaning hire more workers to get the job complete on time) - and we should have just under 3000 men by then.
This means a lot of work for us timekeepers. They have actually asked us to put out feelers for 2 more - one for day shift and one for night shift.
It will be a big learning curve this week again with the new process. This new process also means working 6 days a week - which sucks cause I won't be home to get much done or play with the horses much but the paycheques will be FANTASTIC.
We finally are set up in our office. We are all together - which is new. But we got new desks, computer monitors, keyboards and SUPPLIES!!! It sure is nice not to have to worry about things like that at this place.
We also got our "assignments". We will be starting to put in all the employees (DFL - Direct Field Labor) timesheets on a daily basis. There are currently just over 1800 men working for Bantrel at the Refinery. They are starting to "man up" (meaning hire more workers to get the job complete on time) - and we should have just under 3000 men by then.
This means a lot of work for us timekeepers. They have actually asked us to put out feelers for 2 more - one for day shift and one for night shift.
It will be a big learning curve this week again with the new process. This new process also means working 6 days a week - which sucks cause I won't be home to get much done or play with the horses much but the paycheques will be FANTASTIC.
NEW LOOK
Well, I finally got busy and did something this week. I changed the look of my blog - as well as the addy for it - to match my new website.
Tuesday, October 2, 2007
The Supreme and Dale
Dale showed this last week at the Canadian Supreme. It is one of the largest shows for reining, cutting and working cowhorse in Canada.
She showed Hyde's sister in the Open Cutting Futurity. She made it through to the 2nd go round but not to the finals. Which is too bad because this mare is AMAZING.
She also showed her 4 year old mare "OUT PLAY EM" to a 4th place finish in the Canadian Supreme Open Maturity class.
I am very happy for her and just wish I could have gotten down there to watch her and cheer her on.
She has e-mailed me a couple times to remind me that next year at this time both Hyde and Gunner will be showing there!!!
She showed Hyde's sister in the Open Cutting Futurity. She made it through to the 2nd go round but not to the finals. Which is too bad because this mare is AMAZING.
She also showed her 4 year old mare "OUT PLAY EM" to a 4th place finish in the Canadian Supreme Open Maturity class.
I am very happy for her and just wish I could have gotten down there to watch her and cheer her on.
She has e-mailed me a couple times to remind me that next year at this time both Hyde and Gunner will be showing there!!!
Confidence comes slowly
Bailey's confidence in handling the horses has been slowly building over the last couple months. She stunned me a couple weeks ago when she "asked" to ride Sonny.
Things are progressing a lot faster now that she has done that.
On Friday, after I got home from work, she asked if she could go catch and brush Molson. I said okay...knowing that Molson likes attention.
About an hour later, she came back in and said "Molson wouldn't let me take him out of the pasture so I let him go and caught Sonny. I took him into the barn, tied him up and brushed him and cleaned his feet. He was a very good boy Mom". Needless to say I was speechless to start with. But then went "that's great!!!".
Saturday dawned with chores on the horizon so no horse stuff.
Sunday, Bailey's friend Tamara was coming over to ride. Bailey asked if she could go outside and I, of course, said "sure". So off she went. About 15 minutes later, I hear "MOM" from the front door. I look out and she has her own horse, Skeena. this mare normally runs from anyone lately to avoid being caught. I asked how she managed to catch her and she grinned and said "I had oats". LOL Priceless.
So she took her and brushed her up and then put her in a stall to await Tamara's arrival.
The two girls took turns riding for about 3 hrs. That is one patient horse cause the two girls can't reach the stirrup so they have to climb up pulling like crazy on the saddle in all sorts of different places. Guess Doyle will have to build a mounting block. LOL
they turned her loose and came in to warm up (we are into the bite of fall up here in canada).
I had people come and look at Sonny - and Bailey beat us all out to the pasture and had him caught and was bringing him into teh barn for us. They were impressed with that.
AFter they left, the two girls again caught Skeena and even tacked her up. I had to tighten the cinch and they rode for another hour.
I guess Bailey's fear is slowly going away. And alot of that is due to Tamara but I think also to Sonny for being such a good boy for her.
Things are progressing a lot faster now that she has done that.
On Friday, after I got home from work, she asked if she could go catch and brush Molson. I said okay...knowing that Molson likes attention.
About an hour later, she came back in and said "Molson wouldn't let me take him out of the pasture so I let him go and caught Sonny. I took him into the barn, tied him up and brushed him and cleaned his feet. He was a very good boy Mom". Needless to say I was speechless to start with. But then went "that's great!!!".
Saturday dawned with chores on the horizon so no horse stuff.
Sunday, Bailey's friend Tamara was coming over to ride. Bailey asked if she could go outside and I, of course, said "sure". So off she went. About 15 minutes later, I hear "MOM" from the front door. I look out and she has her own horse, Skeena. this mare normally runs from anyone lately to avoid being caught. I asked how she managed to catch her and she grinned and said "I had oats". LOL Priceless.
So she took her and brushed her up and then put her in a stall to await Tamara's arrival.
The two girls took turns riding for about 3 hrs. That is one patient horse cause the two girls can't reach the stirrup so they have to climb up pulling like crazy on the saddle in all sorts of different places. Guess Doyle will have to build a mounting block. LOL
they turned her loose and came in to warm up (we are into the bite of fall up here in canada).
I had people come and look at Sonny - and Bailey beat us all out to the pasture and had him caught and was bringing him into teh barn for us. They were impressed with that.
AFter they left, the two girls again caught Skeena and even tacked her up. I had to tighten the cinch and they rode for another hour.
I guess Bailey's fear is slowly going away. And alot of that is due to Tamara but I think also to Sonny for being such a good boy for her.
Week Two down
Last week marked week 2 of my new job. It is going great. Learning LOTS. Have had 3 days of training and did a workshop.
The guys have been fantastic to do stuff for. They are very understanding with how little time we have had (we meaning Eve, Rhonda and myself) actually doing the work that we were hired to do.
We have caught the payroll department up completely now (filing - checking the daily timesheets, etc.) so they are starting to cross train us on the actual payroll work. This is a great boost to all of us - and something else great to put on our resumes.
We also found out that we were not hired on a temp contract basis as we were told in our interview. We have been put on as permanent timekeepers. Which means that when this job is finished in August - we will be asked to go to the next build.
That build is in Fort Saskatchewan (same distance from home for me) and is scheduled for completion in 2010. So that means another 3 years of work.
That is great for all 3 of us.
The guys have been fantastic to do stuff for. They are very understanding with how little time we have had (we meaning Eve, Rhonda and myself) actually doing the work that we were hired to do.
We have caught the payroll department up completely now (filing - checking the daily timesheets, etc.) so they are starting to cross train us on the actual payroll work. This is a great boost to all of us - and something else great to put on our resumes.
We also found out that we were not hired on a temp contract basis as we were told in our interview. We have been put on as permanent timekeepers. Which means that when this job is finished in August - we will be asked to go to the next build.
That build is in Fort Saskatchewan (same distance from home for me) and is scheduled for completion in 2010. So that means another 3 years of work.
That is great for all 3 of us.
Honesty when selling
How much do you tell?
When you are selling horses...do you tell everything about the horse? Do you tell just the good? Do you tell some of the bad - but say what you have done to correct it?
Sometimes I think I am too honest and say too much. But I don't want someone to buy from me - get the horse home - and then run into a problem that I knew about.
I know it could be holding my sales back.
Doyle thinks I do it so that I won't sell. Meaning Sonny. LOL
Hmmm.
When you are selling horses...do you tell everything about the horse? Do you tell just the good? Do you tell some of the bad - but say what you have done to correct it?
Sometimes I think I am too honest and say too much. But I don't want someone to buy from me - get the horse home - and then run into a problem that I knew about.
I know it could be holding my sales back.
Doyle thinks I do it so that I won't sell. Meaning Sonny. LOL
Hmmm.
Down two more
The fourth Saturday of every month is the big horse sale at the Tofield Auction. I loaded up Dusty and Paris on the Friday and hauled them in...not that I normally sell at auctions, but they have been for sale since they were weanlings and no serious bites on them.
Needing to downsize, this was one of the ways to go about it.
Had lots of interest in them from the people looking the horses over in the stalls. One of the main comments was how quiet they were and accepting of everything. One gentleman asked how often they leave home - due to their quiet nature - and I said this is the first time. He was amazed and called his friend over to look at them as well. Maybe they ended up being one of the buyers???
I set a reserve on them and both exceeded it...and both went to homes...so I am happy in a way. Definately didn't get what I was asking for privately but what can you do.
Good luck to their new owners...they got some great little horses to play with.
Needing to downsize, this was one of the ways to go about it.
Had lots of interest in them from the people looking the horses over in the stalls. One of the main comments was how quiet they were and accepting of everything. One gentleman asked how often they leave home - due to their quiet nature - and I said this is the first time. He was amazed and called his friend over to look at them as well. Maybe they ended up being one of the buyers???
I set a reserve on them and both exceeded it...and both went to homes...so I am happy in a way. Definately didn't get what I was asking for privately but what can you do.
Good luck to their new owners...they got some great little horses to play with.
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